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Children's Hospital again ranks among top in nation

Children's Hospital again ranks among top in nation

Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital has been ranked in three specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012-13 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings.

Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital ranked 34th in orthopedics, 40th in cancer, and 46th in diabetes and endocrinology. Children’s Hospital ranked in two specialties last year and first made the Best Children’s Hospitals list in 2008.

The rankings feature 50 hospitals in each of 10 pediatric specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology, and urology. Eighty hospitals across the country ranked in one or more specialties.

“Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital deserves high praise for its accomplishments,” said Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow. “Penn State Hershey has a reservoir of dedication and expertise that helps the sickest kids. Our goal at U.S. News is to identify and call attention to pediatric centers like this one.”

For families of sick children, Best Children’s Hospitals provides unparalleled quality-related information in addition to rankings, including survival rates, adequacy of nurse staffing, procedure volume, and much more. Since their 2007 debut, the rankings have put an increasing emphasis on data that directly reflect hospitals’ performance over the opinions of physicians.

“We are honored to be recognized for the high quality of care, comprehensive services, and excellent outcomes that Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital provides,” said Harold L. Paz, CEO of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State’s senior vice president for health affairs, and dean, Penn State College of Medicine. “Our new freestanding Children’s Hospital, opening later this year, will further enhance our ability to provide state-of-the-art pediatric care close to home for central Pennsylvania children and families.”

This year, U.S. News surveyed 178 pediatric centers to obtain hard data such as availability of key resources and ability to prevent complications and infections. The hospital survey made up 75 percent of the rankings. A separate reputational survey in which 1,500 pediatric specialists -- 150 in each specialty -- were asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty made up the remaining 25 percent.

“This achievement is a result of the commitment that all of our highly skilled and caring faculty and staff make every day to provide excellent care to the children of central Pennsylvania,” said Craig Hillemeier, medical director, Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital.